Service Level Agreements (SLA)

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) defines the expected response and resolution times for support tickets. It helps support teams meet service commitments by tracking deadlines based on ticket priority, business hours, holidays, and ticket activity.

Every ticket in Frappe Helpdesk can be associated with an SLA, ensuring both agents and customers have clear expectations about when a ticket should receive its first response and when it should be resolved.

Creating an SLA Policy

To create a new SLA policy:

1. Open the Settings dialog from the Helpdesk sidebar.
2. Select SLA Policies from the left navigation.
3. Click New.
4. Configure the SLA details and save the policy.

Each SLA is linked to the HD Ticket DocType and can be enabled or disabled as required.

What an SLA Contains

Each SLA policy includes:

• Default Priority
• Enabled status
• Valid From and Valid To dates (optional)
• First Response targets
• Resolution targets
• Working hours
• Holiday list
• Assignment conditions
• Fulfillment and pause statuses

Response and Resolution Targets

Different priorities can have different response and resolution commitments.

These values are completely configurable and can be adjusted for each priority level.

SLA Status Behaviour

Helpdesk automatically manages SLA timers based on ticket status.

SLA Fulfilled On

• Resolved
• Closed

Once a ticket reaches one of these statuses, the SLA is considered completed.

SLA Paused On

• Replied

When a ticket is waiting for a customer response, the resolution timer pauses automatically until the customer replies.

Working Hours

SLAs only count time that falls within your configured business hours.

For example, if your support team works Monday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, any time outside those hours is excluded from SLA calculations.

If a ticket is created after business hours, the SLA timer resumes when the next working period begins.

Business Holidays

Holiday Lists allow you to exclude public holidays and non-working days from SLA calculations.

You can:

• Create one or more holiday lists.
• Add one-time holidays.
• Create recurring holidays such as weekends.
• View holidays in calendar or list view.

Whenever a holiday occurs, SLA timers pause automatically until the next working day.

Assignment Conditions

Multiple SLA policies can exist simultaneously. Helpdesk automatically selects the appropriate SLA using assignment conditions.

Conditions can be created using the visual rule builder and may reference any ticket field, including custom fields.

For example, an SLA can apply only when:

• Ticket Type equals Bug
• Assigned Team equals Billing
• Priority equals High

If no configured condition matches a ticket, the SLA marked as Default is applied automatically.

How SLA Time is Calculated

Helpdesk calculates two important deadlines for every ticket:

• First Response Due — When the first agent response must be sent.
• Resolution Due — When the ticket should be resolved.

The calculation considers:

• Configured working hours
• Holiday list
• Ticket priority
• Time spent in paused statuses such as Replied

Example Scenarios

Scenario 1 — Ticket Created During Working Hours

A High priority ticket is created on Tuesday at 5:00 PM.

• One working hour is available before business hours end.
• The remaining SLA time resumes on Wednesday morning.

Scenario 2 — Ticket Created Before a Weekend

A Medium priority ticket is created on Friday at 4:00 PM.

• Only two working hours remain on Friday.
• Saturday and Sunday are excluded.
• The SLA resumes on Monday morning.

Scenario 3 — Ticket Created on a Holiday

A Low priority ticket is created on Saturday at 3:00 PM.

• No SLA time is counted on Saturday or Sunday.
• The timer starts when business opens on Monday.

SLA Calculation Summary

Best Practices

• Create separate SLA policies for different priorities or teams.
• Always configure a default SLA as a fallback.
• Use assignment conditions to automatically apply the correct SLA.
• Keep working hours and holiday lists up to date.
• Review SLA breaches regularly to improve support performance.